Justice
by CryptIXeeper
Summary: Thrust into a different world with a different language and people, circumstances for twelve year old Jade Chan quickly fly out of control. Her only choice? To adapt.
1. Misjustice

_My story is not a happy one, but it used to be._

_Before I was thrust into a world where morals are not black and white, but shades of gray._

_And learned the hard way, that the only thing that separates them from you; is one really bad day._

_The Black Witch_

* * *

**[Impel Down]**

Vice Guard Domino had always asked herself the important questions in life, or at least what she deemed important at the time. It was part of her nature, and her three rules to live by.

The first: to always act serious and professional, the second: to always obey orders when given, and the third: never question your superiors.

However, at this particular moment, she was questioning them.

As such, it was a significant occasion; perhaps not to the world or the various personnel of 'Impel Down'. Nevertheless, the occasion held significance to her.

It was while she contemplated this thought that her journey of quick strides down the various hallways and elevators within the giant institution ended at the Warden's office.

"_Who is once again, most likely, shirking on his duties…"_ she silently vented before bursting into the unsurprisingly empty office and heading straight for his personal bathroom.

"Chief Warden! How long have you been in there?!" she loudly demanded.

An alarmed exclamation followed by what seemed to be a flush echoed throughout the Warden's office, "Just a minute!" he responded; only to moments later enter the large office with a blush on his squinting face.

"Ah! Vice Guard Domino!" he exclaimed rather loudly and unnecessarily before making a mumbling a comment about the light, "What seems to be the problem?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head in tandem.

Staring at the warden behind her dark sunglasses, she once again reminded herself to add 'Unless Idiots' to rule three.

"We have an issue with one of the prisoner shipments, Chief Warden Magellan" she stated in a serious manner, "As I am highly doubtful that the prison we manage and guard is an acceptable place for a twelve year old who speaks gibberish."

Clearing his throat, the Chief Warden made his way over to his massive desk with a partially annoyed expression on his face, "Now Domino, I know you've only come into your position recently, but even then you should know that Justice does not discriminate."

"Be that as it may, sir, she is twelve. I have served as a guard at this facility for over two and a half years. I may have only been recently promoted, but I know for a fact that the upper levels are not designed to house children, let alone little girls."

The Chief Warden sighed as he slowly rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I suppose I can see where you're coming from in your concern for…what's her number?"

"1113…Sir"

"Very well, Prisoner 1113, we can give her a single cell." The Warden said before clapping his hands, "There, problem solved."

"I am afraid there is still the issue of what level she will be housed in Magellan. As it is, she will be residing on level one."

Letting out a drawn out sigh of poisonous gas, "Yes, I can see where no cells could be a problem, Level two then."

"The one with the unlockable doors, sir?" the Vice Guard said with thinly veiled sarcasm.

"I don't like that tone Vice Guard." Magellan said in a no nonsense tone.

The oppressive aura that her superior began to give out made her double back quickly, "I…sorry sir."

"I thought so; However, I will be lenient. If Levels one and two are out, I'll leave you to pick her poison."

"Sir?" she asked questioningly

"You heard me. She can starve to death, burn to death, or freeze to death. The choice is yours Vice Guard, so…pick her poison."

"You will let me pick any level of our facility Chief Warden?" She asked with a frown, disbelief evident in her voice and eyes thankfully hidden.

"Sure, sure" Magellan said while waving his hands in a dismissive manner while stamping the permission form with an official looking seal, slowly gaining a pained expression on his face, "Have fun with that, I'm late for my next appointment!" practically screaming the last part as he bolted for the bathroom, leaving Domino in his wake as well as an official permission form gently floating through the air.

It took a few seconds for her Warden's exit to register in her mind before she snatched the paperwork out of the air and pivoted on her heel, heading towards the records department.

* * *

"Vice Guard Domino" Chief Guard Shiliew stated with a slightly condescending tone, "Is there a particular reason why you went over my head and to the warden?"

Those were the words that greeted Domino as she entered the Chief Jailers office, they were also the words she had been dreading for the past three hours after she finished filing a 121-M form along with personally handling prisoner 1113's cell reassignment.

"I-I didn't want to burden you sir!" Her words were sputtered and, she hoped, vaguely surprised. She didn't go to Shiliew on purpose and he knew it, the only thing that man cared about was his own entertainment and the status-quo.

"No need to be nervous Domino" he responded sarcastically, "I'm just glad you're doing your job. However, if you go over my head again there will be consequences; you only bother the Chief Warden for important matters, am I clear?"

Continuing to stand at attention, Domino saluted the man with a "Sir!"

Looking bored, the Chief Guard continued to stare, "Get out."

With a second salute, the vice guard pivoted on her heel and walked towards the office's exit as quickly as she could, only to be stopped by Shiliew's voice, "Oh…and before I forget, Domino, what was the prisoner's number again?"

She was going to say 1113, she really was, but in a surreal moment of mental insubordination her brain locked up, "Prisoner 1114…sir."

"Very good Vice Guard, dismissed."

The words that were said right before the office doors closed echoed through her mind, drawing a chill along her spine,

"_This is Head Guard Shiliew, I want prisoner 1114 scheduled for a transfer to level 5…"_

* * *

**[2 Months Later]**

The Vice Warden, Hannyabal, stood at the gates of Impel Down waiting for, what he thought, was the next convoy of prisoners.

He wasn't surprised when his expected convoy turned out to be marine warship; they were standard issue when transporting prisoners after all. He wasn't even surprised a Vice Admiral came to meet him; this was also standard procedure as they were the ones who usually handled security detail.

No, what surprised Hannyabal was the sheet of paper handed to him requesting a prisoner's release. This was Impel Down; it was a maximum security prison for a reason. You entered, served your sentence, and either died or stayed, but the paper in front of him was an approved 121-M form. Sure they existed as per standard procedure, but they were never used, which brought him full circle back to the 121-M form in his hand, scratch that, the _Approved_ 121-M form in his hand.

"I-I ah," until he cleared his throat, "The Chief Warden will want to see this, obviously a grave injustice has been committed this day." His tone was almost hopeful tone as he began leading the Vice Admiral down into the facility and towards the Warden's office; However, the Vice Admiral remained stoically quite.

After twenty minutes of silence, Hannyabal spoke up again, "You'll promote me to Chief Warden when you demote him right?!" only to receive more silence.

Hannyabal was beginning to grow annoyed, he didn't know the man's name so he must have been new to the position, or he was new to security detail and pouting about it, but his attitude left something to be desired. Thankfully, they arrived at the warden's office before he grew more bothered.

Opening the door to a surprisingly occupied room, he quickly began to make his exit, but not before shouting, "Remember! Make we warden when you demote him!" in his retreat.

It was a quick retreat too, as the echoes of the Chief Warden yelling his name chased after his heels.

* * *

She didn't feel much these days, as only the chill of the air against her skin and the hunger of her stomach told her she was actually alive most of the time, instead of trapped in some sort of demon sorcerer prison.

Perhaps she was going crazy with boredom…or annoyance, it was hard to tell when everyone spoke in what she suspected was Japanese, at least she thought it was Japanese, the words for kill, hungry and bored might mean love, peace, and prosperity in this new and mysterious language for all she knew, but it was highly doubtful.

Jade sighed with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, 'what to do, what to do,' well she could play 'I-Spy' with herself again but that never worked out too well, considering she already knew what she was looking at. She supposed she could double numbers in her head again, but no, she had memorized the doubles by now and she wasn't in the mood to try her hand at multiplying by double digits. That left one thing to do today…or tonight, she really couldn't tell, but it was the same thing she had done for the past…fair amount of time.

Figure out this wonderful language she had discovered, and by wonderful language she meant slow and painful death by aneurism. Jade was almost sure that long nosed, witch looking woman in the next cell over was teaching her swearwords for her amusement. Then there was that fat, giant, long-nosed, man-thing in the other cell mumbling the kill, hungry, bored gig.

So it was back to bugging the woman again, Catarina or other…or she could just work out her frustrations and swear at—

*Groan* *Krck* *Chk-chk-chk-chk-chk*

Ah, or she could watch a pot-bellied shirtless man swing around a giant double-bladed Naginata. Jade slightly shivered before turning around and facing the opposite side of her cell, even imagining it threw a chill down her spine.

*Chk-chk-chk-chk-chk-chk-…chk-…chk-…chk* *Khgh* *Groan* *Khgh*

It was about two minutes later that she began to hear footsteps approaching her cell until they stopped with a rattling of keys and whining cage doors took their place. She turned around to see two guards flanking a tall man, wearing jet-black sunglasses along with a cap that said…

Her eyes widened, it said Marine, was she seeing things? It was clearly English, so did that mean they spoke Japanese but read in English? How did that work?!

She was interrupted from her thoughts when the man barked out a command and the guards flanking him went over and undid her chains, then took her out of the cell by her hands, practically dragging her along the stone floor.

They didn't talk, and the first time she asked a question was the last as she was swiftly rebuked in a harsh tone. They just walked, dragging her through chain elevators and various hallways before they entered an empty room and tall man, who she dubbed 'Mr. Marine' shoved a pile of clothes into her hands before leaving.

…huh…

Well they obviously expected her to put it on, and they did feel more comfortable than these stereotypical prison clothes…

Minutes later, Jade found herself looking like a cabin boy straight out of one of those old sailor films. It was comfortable, sure, but if she was honest with herself, it was also ugly as hell.

Moments later the guards along with Mr. Marine returned. He took a few looks at her before tugging on parts of her outfit and nodding. Looking satisfied, Mr. Marine led her by the shoulder with the guards in tow.

As time passed, she eventually stood face to face with the massive gates of Impel Down, giant and forbidding.

Pure light pierced the darkness as the gates parted in front of her person. While her eyes took their time to adjust to the sudden abundance of light, she continued to be led by her neck until her steps against stone turned to wood, and the shrieking of seagulls, rushing of the ocean, and the gentleness of the breeze could be heard, smelled, and felt.

Jade closed her eyes...and opened them three days later…

* * *

**Author's Note: Changed some things, nothing major. Might go through and change it a bit more if it strikes my fancy.**


	2. Recruitment

[**Marineford**]

It had been six weeks since Jade's release. Six weeks of fresh air, gentle breezes, and crashing waves. It had also been six weeks of cleaning floors, kitchen duty, and crash courses in the local language.

The Language, as she had come to understand it, was indeed the same Japanese she had known passingly in her world. Only they didn't call it Japanese here, they didn't call it much of anything really, but it was spoken by everyone. Sure, you could tell what island a person came from by an accent, though that was the only distinction given to the language.

In all honesty, Japanese was fairly easy to learn when everyone around you spoke it. Even easier when you're commanding officer yells at you for speaking, as he put it, 'mostly gibberish'. Their writing system on the other hand was another story entirely.

It came to her easy in the beginning, as many of the characters were similar to Chinese, only that stopped after a while. Now it was like pulling teeth; nevertheless, she considered herself 'mostly' literate.

The first two weeks of her release had been spent on a Marine warship, and the first three days, in the ship infirmary. Both time frames were equally boring, as she spent most of her time when out of the infirmary bed either playing charades with the ship doctor or struggling to learn the language.

On the other hand, those same two weeks had let her discover exactly, if somewhat accidently, what had happened to the rat talisman that was previously in her possession. As luck would have it, she had been 'playing' charades with the ship doctor at the time she found out.

Unsuprisingly, the first thing the doctor did when she'd woken up had been to give her a notepad, thinking it would help with her language lessons. He wasn't of the same opinion when Jade's doodles began to destroy what he was trying to teach. He took away her writing privileges shortly after that, though the expression his face made had been interesting.

A few more demonstrations and a visit from 'Mr. Marine' quickly ridded her of the situational novelty. After all, she had a feeling that 'The Cannon Debacle', as she called it, would be remembered by the surrounding crew for a while. It was disappointing, but not really unexpected, to learn that she was banned from going near the cannons after that disaster.

Of course, a while later, it had later been brought to her attention by the ship's doctor that she had eaten a 'Devil Fruit', though he had admitted to not knowing which one in particular. Jade on the other hand, more or less focused on the important details, such as being unable to swim or come into contact with sea water. Obviously a huge problem considering the world was almost made up entirely of water with a single massive landmass of mountain, a smattering of smaller reasonably sized continents, and thousands of scattered islands.

Her funk over not being able to swim lasted about two days before she had decided to try and experiment with her powers; in hindsight, not such a good idea. However, she did learn a few important things.

Her powers still functioned much like the rat talisman used to, only, with a few changes. She still had to touch an object in order to animate it, but unlike the original talisman, she could now animate multiple objects, though the single object rule still applied when it wasn't touching her.

She had tried out her powers on various objects and results were varied. The talismans ability to impart a semblance of life had been reduced somewhat. Objects she tried to animate came alive, but only moved when they were commanded to. There was no change or discrepancy; they all acted like automated puppets.

However, keeping in contact with the objects instead of letting them go seemed to increase their intellect, and that chair she had animated kind of reminded her of a cat, but otherwise if she lost contact with them they reverted back to moving puppets after a couple of seconds.

Overall, it was a successful venture.

After the first two weeks, and some side stops, the Marine warship made it back to Marineford. She had to admit; at a distance the place didn't really look all that impressive, but then when they got closer, well, she had honestly been surprised at the sheer size and defensibility of the place.

The surrealism of the moment lasted until the next day when she was loudly woken up and dragged out of bed by a stern looking tanned man with a black mustache.

She spent the next four weeks hounded by said man, and it had definitely helped that she was finally on speaking terms with him by the second week. Peace of mind went a long way in regards to motivating Jade to learn the language when the other person kept yelling at her in it.

Two more weeks of the same, if slightly calmer routine slowly passed much to jade's annoyance; however, that was soon to change.

* * *

A man with slightly balding green hair and sunglasses was sitting within his office while looking over reports on one of the marine's new recruits. Scattered on his desk were arrest reports, jail records, health records, and any other records you could think of regarding this particular marine.

There were two stacks of paper on his desk; the first was made up of all her recent records, the oldest dating back to about a month before her imprisonment in Impel down. Those particular records came from the drifting ghost ship a local marine patrol had found her on.

The second stack was made up of the personal records of a missing noble, who had been presumed 'lost-at-sea', along with the rest of her family, at least six months ago. Compare this particular picture to her current one and they looked exactly the same. There was, however, a problem.

The reports of her instructor, Ensign Rokkaku, her physician, Doctor Aeinsworth, and her escort, Vice Admiral Vergo, all described her as your average, cheerful, optimistic, girl. That was what didn't add up. A cheerful and optimistic attitude, Impel Down does not make.

Her release from Impel Down was something of a hot topic at the moment. She wouldn't have been released at all if that 121-M form hadn't been handed over to a noble officer, who had sadly recognized her picture and spread it throughout all the other marines of noble lineage within the ranks. It did not take a genius to know that they had been, for lack of a better word, pissed.

So as it was, the marines had been caught with their pants down in a veritable shitstorm when the last member of a decrepit noble line had been revealed to have somehow slipped through the cracks. To add insult to injury, that 'ship' she had been found on belonged to one of the numerous Sabaody Archipelago Human Auction assets, this particular one having been recorded in the records as the 'Happy Joy', something the nobles as well as the Gorosei were not happy to hear about, if for completely different reasons.

As it was now, his superiors were pushing for her acceptance into the marines in order to save face. He personally assumed it was some political scheme to make it look like she forgave them for the mix-up. Furthermore, the political landscape as well as her noble status would ensure her apprenticeship to a big name.

In his opinion, this entire situation was the very definition of 'fubar' and he foresaw many marine officers receiving at least a demerit for this particular outrage.

Even more worrisome, that request from Doctor Aeinsworth for her to receive psychiatric evaluation would likely be denied as it would prevent her from joining the marines; fortunately, he had some wiggle room on that front. He could at least ensure she received on and off shore counseling, if not from a registered doctor then perhaps a superior officer.

In other words, he better receive a promotion for this.

* * *

His door partially opened to reveal a marine soldier, "Miss Chan is here to see you, Lieutenant Brannew, sir!"

The green haired man, Lieutenant Brannew, gave the man a slight nod before looking back down to the sheets of paper in his hands, "Send her in."

Within few moments, a young girl with black hair and…yellowish-gold eyes entered his office and began to speak only to be cut off, "Miss Chan, am I correct?

"Ah, yes sir!" Recruit Chan said in a startled tone.

Lieutenant Brannew looked at Jade with a slightly disappointed expression on his face, "I know you've only been in the marines for two months, but you should know by now that you are to salute your superiors."

"Ah, Sir!" she replied, this time with a salute and an embarrassed expression on her face.

The only response she got was a heavy sigh.

"Sit down recruit Chan, we need to address why you're here."Brannew said with a bored tone.

After a fidgeting Jade sat down in front of his desk, he began, "Now, before we start I need to inform you of a few issues with your acceptance to the marines and your missing person's status. So if you're ready, we can begin."

* * *

Missing person?

She was pretty sure she'd never been in this world before, so it was a little alarming to hear that.

"Sir?" she ground out as meekly as she could, "What do you mean by a missing person?"

"Ah, that does bring us to our first issue, very good Miss Chan." He said before presenting her with a picture which she took.

The picture was off a black haired girl with yellowish-gold eyes smiling broadly, making a peace sign while wearing a pair of blue jeans along with a short-sleeved T-shirt.

"That's me." She stated in a surprised tone.

"You are correct. You don't perhaps remember anything from that time do you?" he stated with a raised eyebrow.

"I…uh..." thinking fast, Jade steadied her voice, "No, no I can't. I…don't really remember anything from before…" she finished lamely.

"Miss Chan," Lieutenant Brannew stated with seriousness, "According to Doctor Aeinsworth, you are suffering from a serious case of amnesia. Are you sure you can't remember anything?"

The embarrassed expression on her face was all the answer he needed.

Lieutenant Brannew sighed, "Very well, I assume you know how to read correct?" pausing for a reaction from her.

At jade's nod he continued, "You will need to sign this paper in order to be officially admitted to the marines, and then we can move on to the other issues."

"I thought I already was a marine." she asked curiously as she broke out of her previous state of surprise.

"I'm afraid not Miss Chan, though you are a guest of the marines you aren't an official one."

Something wasn't right here. Jade had seen enough of poor manipulation tactics from her uncle Jackie to know something definitely stunk.

Jade's eyes narrowed in thought, "Can you tell me about my supposed family before I sign so I can make a decision? Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful you guys got me out of that 'Impel Down' place, but something doesn't feel right, I thought I already was a marine when they made me put on these clothes."

Lieutenant Brannew sighed, "In normal circumstances you would be, but these aren't normal circumstances." He finished before scratching his chin slightly.

"Though your Impel Down status is an issue, this is more of a family matter, which brings me to the bad news. Six months ago, you and your family were reported to have been lost-at-sea. Though you were lucky to survive, and frankly, it's a veritable miracle that you managed that, your family's luck was…not as outstanding. Because of this, you are the last remaining heir to the 'Silic' noble line."

Jade was silent for a while before responding with trepidation, "I'm not a queen am I?"

Sensing the tone in her voice, Brannew chuckled slightly, "No, I'm afraid not. The 'Silic' family is only of minor relations to other noble lines at best; although, I do believe you're related to a few noble families in Alabasta, beyond that though I'm unsure.

Jade closed her eyes in thought for a moment. It was never wise to get involved with noble families, no matter how distantly related if Uncle's history books were anything to go by. Besides, it wasn't even her family in the first place. Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, and rest of the members in the J-team, as well as her parents were her family, and they were still alive. Her musings, however, were cut short as the Lieutenant began to speak anew.

"I believe you will be happy to note that joining the marines will prevent you from being required to fill out the familial obligations that you currently have on hold, including that arranged marriage set up by your parents." Brannew finished with a smirk.

Jades blood froze as she asked faintly, "A-Arranged marriage?"

Brannew smiled knowingly, "Yep, wait one moment; I do believe I have a picture of Saint Charloss here somewh—"

Jade quickly interrupted with a shouted, "Give me that paper!"

* * *

**A/N: Another edit taken place for your viewing pleasure.**


End file.
